Friday 3 rd of December period 4

POETRY

THE HIGHWAYMAN – Alfred Noyes

Reading

Check the link below and read the poem again in total silence so that you can answer the following questions as accurately as possible

http://www.teachersfirst.com/share/highwayman/

Questions

1. What is the moon compared to in the first stanza of the poem?2. What is happening in the first stanza?3. How is the highwayman dressed?4. What words in the third stanza suggest the actual sounds being made by the

highwayman5. “His eyes were hollows of madness”. What does this show about Tim the ostler?6. In the fifth stanza, what words of the highway show that he is determined to

return to Bess?7. In part two, what do King George’s men do when they reach the inn?8. What had Bess managed to do “on the stroke of midnight”?9. How does Bess warn her highwaymen?10. How does the highwayman react at dawn when he heard of Bess’s sacrifice?11. What comments would you make about the love between Bess and the

highwayman?

Extension

12. Summarise The Highwayman in 50 words.

13. What is the historical background of the poem The Highwayman? Wikipedia would be a useful resource when answering this question.

14. If you have finished write another stanza for The Highwayman. It can go before the poem as a type of prologue or it can feature at the end of the poem as a type of epilogue. When writing your extra stanza try to incorporate examples of rhyme, repetition, alliteration, metaphor, personification, similes, onomatopoeia and complex vocabulary. This way your stanza will blend right in to the style of poem Alfred Noyes has written. See below for full explanation of some of the poetic devices Noyes uses in The Highwayman.

15. Create a list of at least 20 vocabulary words from the poem and define them.

Poetic Devices

Rhyme – Not all poems rhyme, but poems that tell a story usually rhyme, because it helps the listener or reader to remember the story.

Repetition – For special effects, poetry uses repetition of words, ideas and sometimes whole versus. Repetition helps us remember the poem and gives it unity.

Alliteration - the repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words.

Metaphor – they say something is or was something else. For example, the moon is a balloon or the footpath outside our place was a river after the downpour.

Personification - A figure of speech in which a non-human object is given human qualities. For example, the daffodils danced in the breeze or the cyclone was angry.

Simile - A figure of speech, which makes a comparison between two things using the word like or as. For example, her teeth looked like pearls, and her skin was as smooth as finely polished marble.

Onomatopoeia – This refers to the use of sound words – words that actually suggest the sound that they are referring to. For example, snicker-snack, crack, etc….